


If My Heart Was a House, You'd Be Home

by Hopeful_Romantic



Category: Glee
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-01
Updated: 2012-01-01
Packaged: 2017-11-08 00:15:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,642
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/437002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hopeful_Romantic/pseuds/Hopeful_Romantic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Emma and Will's first date of the summer they finally got back together...</p>
            </blockquote>





	If My Heart Was a House, You'd Be Home

**Disclaimer:** Glee is owned by Ryan Murphy, FOX, and all the grand high mucky mucks. No copyright infringement is intended and no money was made from this little ficlit. Any similarity to any other story not my own is a coincidence.  
  
 **Title:** If My Heart Was a House, You'd Be Home  
 **Rating:** PG; rated for general content - smooches and such *grin*  
 **Genre:** Glee, Emma/Will; fluff  
 **Timeline/Spoilers:** The summer between the 2nd season and the 3rd  
  
 **Author’s Notes:** The title is from _Owl City_. As for Emma and Will's personal history, honestly, there doesn't seem to be a whole heck of lot over-all, so I just went with what sounded good for the story... (ie Will's Alma Mater, or Emma spending a month with her grandparents during the summer) Oh, and while I'm pretty sure Will doesn't have an apartment like I described (ie the courtyard) again, it worked for what I wanted to have happen in the story and it's not completely out of the realm of possibility.)

* * *

* * *

 

 

 

 

It had seemed like such a romantic idea, a picnic in the park for their first date of the summer. Emma had even been excited at the prospect; their own silverware, their own fruit, no water glasses handled by strange waiters. And she had assured Will that she felt comfortable with the idea of eating in the outdoor gazebo in the little neighborhood park near his apartment. It had seemed like the perfect way to begin again; a fresh, clean start.

Now Will stood with a shivering Emma under the dubious cover of some trees, looking at the muddy gravel paths and wondering how in the hell he was going to get her out of the park in the rain, let alone back to his apartment.

"Will?"

Emma's eyes were wide and dark as she turned them to him.

"Oh... hey, it's going to be okay," Will rushed to assure her, shrugging off his mostly dry sport coat and slipping it over her trembling shoulders. He smoothed away water droplets from her cheeks with his fingertips, desperately hoping that they were just raindrops and not tears. "I promise, okay?"

She gave him a tremulous nod in response as he brushed a few damp tendrils of her hair back. Then he gave her a quick kiss to the temple before looking back out into the downpour.

"We just have to figure out how..." Will said thoughtfully. "To make a dash for it." He nodded in the direction of the tall fireman's pole on the children's playground. "You ready?"

He held out his hand to Emma. She took it in an uncertain grasp, but gave him a trusting little nod. Will lead Emma in a quick sprint to the playground and nearly skidded to a stop underneath the children's toy.

"See, not so bad, right? He assured her, kicking a little at the mostly dry pea gravel.

Emma nodded once, but her trembling hand in his belied the confidence of the action. Will smoothed his thumb over her skin.

"I used to love the rain as a kid. I would go out in it any chance I got and pretend I was Gene Kelley," he confessed. "It drove my mom nuts when I would come home, soaked to the skin. But she never stopped me; just made sure I always had my umbrella and my rain boots."

Will smiled at the memory.

"And my first kiss was in the rain."

"Terri..." Emma began to say, her voice tinged with a touch of incredulity.

"Oh, Terri wasn't my first kiss," Will interrupted with a small laugh. "Besides, you're right, even as a teenager, Terri would have never done something like that... My first kiss was with Anna Delgato. We were nine, and she kissed me on the playground after school the day she transferred to Lincoln Elementary."

"The first day?"

Will laughed. "Yeah, but the next day she kissed Charlie McDannel, so I knew she wasn't the one," he added with a smile and swung Emma's hand a little in his own.

For a moment, they stood in silence, contemplating the rain pouring down around them.

"I always felt... conflicted about the rain," Emma finally said in a small voice. "It washes everything clean, and always brings such life and color afterward, but..."

She watched the water swirling in muddy pools at the edges of the playground.

"But it can also be messy..." Will supplied when she said nothing more.

Emma nodded.

"Like life," he whispered.

"Like life," Emma agreed in a quiet voice.

Again, they stood in silence, the sound of the rain a soft counterpoint to their breathing until Will finally shrugged.

"Well, it doesn't look like it's going to let up any time soon, so I think we're going to have to brave it. I'm sorry, Em." He looked to his date. "You up for that?"

She nodded and said, "At least I'm not alone."

Will raised his hand to his lips and kissed it, enjoying the soft blush Emma gave him in response. "Never that, sweetheart; never again."

He lowered their joined hands and sighted another likely looking shelter.

"Here we go!"

They dashed to a tall oak just at the edge of the park in a rush of wild breath and water.

"Not exactly how you pictured this date going, I'm guessing. I am really sorry, Emma," Will said as they both hid under the tree, catching their breath.

"Oh, don't be. You couldn't have known."

"Unless I had bothered to watch the weather report," Will supplied in a wry voice.

"Oh, it still wouldn't have mattered. Tom Brandy said there was only a thirty five percent chance of rain," Emma countered absently, blushing when Will gave her a curious look. Her blush became a little more pronounced the longer he watched her.

"It wouldn't have mattered?" Will gave her a lop-sided sort of smile and raised an eyebrow.

"It wouldn't have mattered," she finally confessed once more. "I just wanted to be with you."

Will's smile became a grin.

"And this date hasn't gone the way I imagined," Emma was bold enough to say. "It's been better," she admitted in a rush, bringing his attention to the fact that her shoes were a sodden mess, but she wasn't letting herself be overwhelmed by the experience.

Impulsively, he kissed her, wanting her to know how very proud of her he was, and how much he appreciated her for everything that she was. They only broke the kiss when they were both too breathless to continue.

"The first time you ever kissed me," Will said when he had finally caught his breath. "It felt like every love song I had ever heard suddenly made sense for the first time." He brushed raindrops gently from her hair as he continued. "And you know, that's never changed. Every time you kiss me, it feels that way."

Emma laughed a little. "I didn't kiss you. _You_ kissed me. Just like this time... just like..."

"A little pearly white harbor..." Will said with a grin. "But I can't help it. I love the fact that now I can just lean over and kiss you because I want to..."

"And you want to?" Emma asked softly, her voice almost lost in the sound of the rain.

"Always," Will admitted and leaned forward as if to do just that, but pulled back at the last moment with a grin that said he knew exactly what he did to her.

"Do you want me to?" He challenged playfully.

Emma surprised him and rose up on her toes with a quick smile. "Always..." She kissed him then, more passionately than he had expected, bringing a small moan to his lips.

"All the songs," he said breathlessly when they finally broke the kiss. He leaned his forehead to hers, and for a moment, they simply enjoyed being right where they were, rain and all.

"I feel safe," Emma eventually whispered. "When you kiss me... I feel safe."

"Safe?"

Emma took a step back and lay her hand against his lightly stubbled cheek.

"That's a good thing, Will," she assured him. "An important thing. And it feels so wonderful to feel that way when I'm with you."

She caressed his warm skin, enjoying the rough tingle against her fingertips.

"Safe..." he murmured.

"Comfortable enough to feel your warmth," Emma said softly as she twined her arms up around him and gently tangled her fingertips in his hair. "Safe enough to feel so much... to have all of this love for you... to want you so much..." she breathed before kissing him.

"Safe is a very good thing," Will agreed when they were finally forced to stop and catch their breath once more. "And right now," he said with a seductive smile. "I think I really, _really_ need to get you home safe."

They untangled themselves from each other, only keeping their hands clasped together as they made the final dash out of the park and to a nearby bus stop. They stumbled to a stop beneath the green plastic awning, only narrowly missing the large puddle pooled underneath it where the rain had poured down through a large, jagged split in the sheeting. Will noticed Emma's eyes go wide and dark at the near misstep. 

"You know," he said as casually as he could, drawing her attention back to him. "We should play  _Ten Things I Bet You Never Knew."_

He eyed the steady downpour for a moment.

"The rainstorm edition, _"_ he added in a wry voice.

Emma gave him a curious look.

"Well, this  _is_ our first date," he said. "We agreed. Fresh start, first date... and it's what you do on a first date; play getting to know you games. Right?"

Emma gave him a small nod and bit her bottom lip out of nervous habit. "But I'm not sure that there even  _are_ ten things to tell you about me; anything you'd want to know at least."

"There's not anything that I don't want to know about you. I want to know everything, Emma;  _everything_ . You are a mystery that I want to spend every day of my life unraveling," he assured her. "If you'll let me..."

Emma gave him a shy smile in reply.

"Okay?"

"Okay," she whispered in reply. "But..."

"But?" Will prompted.

"But, the game... I don't think I've ever played..."

Will smiled. 

"It's easy. I'll tell you ten things about me..."

"That I never knew..."

Will nodded encouragingly. "And you'll tell me ten things about yourself, that I never knew. We can start here, and after our next dash, it can be round two..."

"And on and on until we reach ten," Emma replied in understanding. 

Will nodded and took a deep breath. "Okay, how about I start? My middle name is Ulysses." 

He watched Emma hold back a helpless, horrified little laugh.

"Yeah, wuss," he confirmed. "You can be sure kids had fun with that one when I was in school," Will said with a crooked little grin. "To this day, I don't know what my parents were thinking."

He watched Emma's face for a moment.

"It's okay, you can laugh."

Emma gave a nervous little giggle. 

"Okay, your turn," Will prompted when she had composed herself.

"Anne," she replied, with a surprisingly guilty look in her eye. 

"Emma Anne... it's lovely," Will said, still a bit baffled by his date's expression.

"After _Anne of Green Gables_... because... because she had red hair too..."

Without another word, Emma released Will's hand and stepped carefully around the puddle at their feet. She looked down the rain soaked street. 

"That tree next?" She asked, indicating an ornamental poplar a short distance away.

Will nodded. "Not much, but it'll have to do I think."

He stepped around the puddle himself and reached for Emma's hand. They sprinted to the tree and Will looked expectantly at Emma. 

“Tell me something else that I don't know about Emma Anne Pillsbury.” 

Emma blushed and looked down before releasing Will's hand and stepping back a pace. After several moments, "I had the biggest crush on Patrick Swazye as a girl," she confessed in a bashful voice. "I must have watched  _Dirty Dancing_ a million times, and I had the worn out tape to prove it." 

Will's gentle laugh drew her eyes back up. 

"Oh sweetheart, I'm not laughing at you," he assured Emma. He held out a hand to her and waited patiently for her to take it. He pulled her close and began to sway with her.

" _Feel her breath on my face, her body close to me, can't look in her eyes, she's out of my league..."_ Will sang softly. " _She's like the wind..."_

 _"_ I wanted to  _be_ Patrick Swayze. I thought that if I could only be half as cool as him... though..." he confessed. "It probably didn't hurt that Terri had a crush on him at the time." He gave Emma a wry grin that she returned with an indecipherable little half-smile of her own.

They swayed together for a few moments longer before making the unspoken decision to sprint to the first stripped awning that beckoned just down the street. They splashed to stop beneath the green and red fabric and Emma caught sight of her reflection in the darkened window.

"Oh..." 

She reached up in a fruitless attempt to try and smooth the wet tendrils of her hair into some kind of order. Will stepped up behind her.

"Beautiful," he said, nothing but sincerity in his voice. "Beautiful..."

"Will..."

He turned her gently to face him.

"Beautiful," he insisted. "You know... I think I like you a little _messy_ ," he whispered in a seductive tone. 

Emma blushed. 

"Your turn."

"What? Wait, that was your thing?"

Will grinned. 

Emma shook her head. 

"Your turn," he insisted. 

She sighed and gave him a measured look, taking in the sight of him in his dark blue button up shirt and fitted jeans.

"I always wondered what you looked like out of all of those vests."

Will chuckled and Emma blushed fiercely when she realized what she had just confessed sounded like. 

"That's not... I mean... that's not what I meant to say. I mean, it  _is_ what I meant to say, but that's not what I meant..." She trailed off, flustered and blushing even more fiercely than before.

Will chuckled again. "Emma... Emma, it's okay. I know what you meant." He kissed her lightly on her burning forehead then grinned, and lead her in the very short dash to a spot beneath the next shop awning. He waited expectantly as she composed herself in preparation for sharing another piece of herself with him.

"I never went to my senior prom... because of what happened at Homecoming," she admitted finally. "Micheal St. John asked me to go with him. So I worked up all my courage to say yes, and I got the perfect dress. And then..."

She took a deep breath.

"He and his friends had been drinking... he got sick all over me after one dance. It was awful. And when I... when I... well, with my OCD you can imagine..." Emma shuddered a little. "Michael called me a freak and refused to take me home. He told me I was over-reacting."

Emma took another deep breath.

"I had to take a taxi home. And my parents..."

She stopped then, a little too breathless with the memory.

"Oh Emma..."

"The next week at school, Michael told everyone in our class some story about how crazy I was... I never wanted to go to another dance after that..."

"Oh Emma..." Will repeated. 

She shook a bit and prepared for their next dash through the rain. Will caught at her hand.

"Wait, my turn," he said gently. 

Emma waited, turning her dark eyes to Will.

"When I was ten, there was this Mother-Son Dance at school. Everything was fine, until mom started drinking the punch. I didn't know that she had brought...  _a little something_ to add to it. Halfway through the dance, it became pretty obvious, and not just to me. I had to call my dad to come pick us up."

Will took his own deep breath.

"That's when I realized... that maybe she was...well, you know... but I was ten... I didn't...I couldn't... I..."

"Oh Will..."

For a moment, they simply held each other. By mutual , unspoken agreement, they said nothing more and sprinted to the next awning in silence. Once there, again, without words, they gave each other a 'pass' on the next round of their game. They kept running, and didn't stop until they reached the fourth and final awning in the little row of shops. Underneath its red and white strips, they each took a minute to catch their breath. Will looked into the darkened shop while Emma watched the rain.

"Oh look, they have one of my Alma Mater," Will said with a bit of a sad smile as he pointed out the University pennant hanging in the window of the small sports shop.

"I didn't know you went to the University of Mississippi," Emma said, turning away from the rain and looking in direction Will had indicated.

"I got into NYU, but Terri... well she got a cheerleading scholarship from  _Ole Miss_ ... so..."

"So you gave up NYU to be with her."

Will nodded. "Yeah, actually... but I wanted to do it. I mean she  _asked_ me to, but... still, I said yes."

He took a thoughtful breath.

"I think maybe there was a part of me that always resented Terri a little for that. But that's not really fair, because I after all, I  _did_ say yes. Besides, if I hadn't, I never would have come back here to teach at McKinley. I never would have met this bunch of amazing kids. And I never would have met you. So in a strange way, I guess I really should be thanking her."

He gave Emma a crooked little grin.

"My turn?"

Will nodded in encouragement.

"Okay..." she said with an almost exaggerated slowness.

"Okay..." he prompted when Emma said nothing more.

"I went to college on a cheerleading scholarship too, for well, the first year at least," Emma said in a rush of breath.

Will gave her an incredulous look. " _You_ were a cheerleader?"

Emma gave him a wry look.

"When I was a junior in high school, I wanted more than anything to study a semester abroad in Paris. My parents said that the only way they would pay for it though, was if I tried to join a non-clean, non-academic extracurricular."

Will raised a questioning eyebrow.

"I think that... I'd like to think that, they were trying to help, in their own way. Though maybe they just... maybe they just wanted a normal teenager for once... Either way, I don't imagine that they thought I ever would. But... I  _really_ wanted to study in Paris..." Emma gave him a shy smile that he returned with an encouraging one of his own. "And they  _did_ say all I had to do was try out, so... I did. I just never imagined I would ever make the squad."

She paused when she saw her date's expression and Will gave her a lop-sided grin.

"I'm just trying to picture you... pom poms, a bouncy little pony tail... short blue and white skirt..."

Emma's blush was nearly as bright as the red of the awning above them. She ducked her head.

"No... no... no..." Will said with a playful laugh and reached out to gently tilt her chin back up. He gave her a light kiss on the tip of her nose. "Please, I'm not making fun. I think it's adorable."

Emma relaxed when she saw the sincerity in his eyes.

"So you cheered and got to go to Paris. But how did you get from high school cheerleader, to college scholarship?"

"I had a coach a lot like you actually. She encouraged me, and as it turned out, I was actually pretty good. When I came back from Paris for my senior year, she put me back on the squad. And she helped me get the scholarship that got me into Radford." Emma paused. "Wait, Will... are you still..."

"Picturing you in a short skirt?"

He gave her a shameless grin in answer.

"Will..."

"Well now, Emma, how can you blame me?

He made a playful show of looking her over, though his darkened eyes were not entirely innocent as he took note of how her blouse and skirt clung to her curves underneath his coat. Emma took in a hitched little breath in response.

"Will..." She nearly gasped. And it was only until he felt her nervous hand on his chest, that Will realized he had leaned in, stepping into her space. In an almost herculean effort, he stepped back; forced himself to look for the next place to make a dash toward.

"There," he said, nodding to a small grouping of magnolia trees just a little way down the street. He sprinted out from the shelter of the awning, reaching back even as the rain fell around him. Emma grabbed his hand and they practically stumbled to a stop beneath the leafy dryness of their goal.

"Almost there; home stretch," Will assured her.

Emma nodded in acknowledgment.

"You okay?" He asked, reaching out to tuck his sport coat tighter around her delicate frame.

Emma nodded once more.

"Seven..."

Will grinned. "Okay, seventh thing you don't know about William Shuester..." 

He looked up a moment before plucking a magnolia blossom from the nearest tree. He gently opened Emma's hand and settled the blossom in it.

"Someday, when I have a house," he said with a small smile. "And a yard... I want to plant a magnolia tree."

Will chuckled at Emma's curious expression.

"We used to have a magnolia tree in our back yard when I was a kid," Will explained. "My father planted it for my mother on the day they got engaged. And every year on their anniversary, the house seemed to be filled with magnolia blossoms. One summer, my dad even tied up an old swing in it for my brother and I. When I think of home... of family... when I think of what that means, and picture my own home, and my own family, I always imagine a house with a magnolia tree in the yard."

He shrugged a bit self-consciously. Emma smiled reassuringly in reply. 

"That's sweet. I mean, I think it's really sweet that you... it's just really sweet."

Will chuckled. "Yeah, well..."

"It's white roses for me," Emma offered. "When I think of those things, I always imagine white roses in a garden." She stroked the smooth magnolia petals with her fingertips as she got lost in her memories for a moment. "Before my grandparents died, I would spend a month with them every summer while my parents traveled and my brother went off to camp. It was my favorite time of the year."

Emma smiled a bit wistfully.

"My grandparents knew that I had trouble with the messy things. But it didn't matter, they loved me without judgment; unconditionally."

She looked up and met Will's warm gaze.

"It helped I think, because when I was with them, my... my OCD wasn't so bad. But even on the days that it was... bad I mean, they still always made me feel safe and accepted. On those days, they taught me how to tend the garden. And it felt like they understood that sometimes I just felt overwhelmed; like I needed to try and somehow make the messy into something beautiful. They gave me my own little part of the garden, and all of the love they had, and it all felt more like home to me than my parents' house ever did."

Will smiled tenderly and brushed back the damp tendrils of Emma's hair. Then he gently lifted the magnolia blossom from her hand.

"May I?" He asked softly, quietly asking if he might set the flower in her hair.

Emma bit her bottom lip a touch nervously, but gave him a small, trusting nod. A tiny grin snuck onto Will's lips, and he carefully tucked the blossom into place behind her ear.

"We'll have white roses and a magnolia tree in our yard then," he whispered.

"With a swing in the branches," Emma whispered back with a blush.

"With a swing..." Will echoed happily and kissed her. She returned the kiss wholeheartedly; breathlessly, and the small sounds Emma was making were quickly driving Will delightfully crazy. He soon had her pressed back up against one of the magnolia trees and the reality that Emma didn't seem worried by that, was in fact still kissing him senseless, was not lost on him in the least.

"Oh God, Emma," he gasped. "Do you know just how much I love touching you? How much I've wanted to touch you? How much I've always wanted to touch you; keep touching you?"

Emma sighed. "More than ten seconds..."

"Ten seconds, ten minutes, ten hours... for a lifetime..."

"Okay," she breathed simply, surprising a rough chuckle from Will.

"Okay..."

The intrusive honk of a passing horn abruptly pulled them out of the moment.

"But maybe not here," Will acknowledged, taking note of the way Emma's blush spread becomingly over her cheeks. "Besides, I still owe you three more,  _things you don't know about Will Schuester."_

"Three?" Emma asked in a voice that clearly indicated that she felt like she might have been getting cheated.

"Are you saying you knew that I've wanted to kiss you since practically the moment we met?" Will teased.

"Oh, I... oh..."

Emma's date raised an curious eyebrow. She quickly tried to compose herself. "Three more things," she conceded, only indirectly answering his question, Will noted as she positioned herself to make another dash out into the rain.

"Uh uh," he said, stopping her. "You have seven, but I only have six..."

"I wish I  _had_ known," Emma replied simply before darting out into the summer shower.

The several seconds Will stood, dumbfounded, gave her a lead of at least a dozen paces. He rushed to catch up, and they both nearly stumbled into the shelter of the green bus stop.

"Emma..."

"Early morning; it's my favorite time of the day. I love the golden light; the way it softens all the jagged edges." Emma interrupted without any preamble, preventing any further discussion of their most recent confessions. She turned to Will. "I love how, at six in the morning, the day seems so full of possibility and promise," she continued with a blithe determination. "And I love how the morning seems like it's the time for hope... thinking that maybe today is the day that every long cherished dream comes true." 

Will gave her a lop-sided smile.

"What about you," she prompted.

His smile brightened into a grin.

"Any time of the day that I get to spend time with you is my favorite."

"Will..."

"It's true," he insisted. He chuckled a little at her expression and finally relented. "Mid-day," he said. 

"Lunchtime? Will..."

He shrugged. "I get to see you. And if the day's been great; I've managed to teach a bunch of stubborn teenagers something they'll carry with them through life, or at least third period... or I've thought of a really great lesson plan for the kids... or I've somehow managed to thwart another one of Sue's attempts to sabotage Glee... I get to share that with you. And if it's been a rotten morning; nothing's gone right all day... seeing you makes it better somehow."

He reached for her hand.

"And I get to carry those moments with me through the rest of each day. They make the good ones even better, and the bad ones... well, the thought of you gets me through those in one piece. So... see, mid-day really  _is_ the best part of the day for me."'

He watched Emma's quiet face a moment before smiling and nodding in the direction of the building right across the street.

"There's my courtyard. We're practically home-free. Ready?"

Emma nodded, and they splashed across the street before dashing under the entryway arch. She smiled a bit wistfully as she watched the bubbling water of the courtyard fountain. Will took note of the smile.

"So, what's the ninth thing I don't know about Emma Pillsbury?" 

"When I was a girl, I used to toss pennies into fountains backwards, with my eyes closed," she replied, memory making her voice soft against the rain beating down on the courtyard tiles. "I thought that maybe I would have a better chance of my wish coming true that way; like maybe if I showed that I had faith..." she trailed off with a quiet blush when she saw Will listening with a tender smile.

"I still do," he confided, and Emma looked up to see that was being sincere.

"Ten..." she said 

"I love you," Will said in response, taking in the sight of her there. His gaze unabashedly traveled from her messy shoes to her rain tousled hair. "I love you so much."

" _That's_ one I already knew," she was bold enough to counter with a smile before watching in wide-eyed anticipation as Will reached forward. He unbuttoned his sport coat and slowly opened it. Then carefully, he slipped his hand inside, reaching for the inner pocket on the left hand side. 

"Breathe," he encouraged Emma with a whisper as he withdrew his hand and the object in it, leaving the coat unbuttoned around her.

A breath that was almost a sigh tumbled from her lips, and Will couldn't help being pleased by the effect he had on her. A purely masculine smile teased his lips into the small curve of a smile. It was still there when he offered Emma the small white box from his hand. She opened it curiously and raised an inquisitive eyebrow when she saw a key strung on a gold necklace chain. She lifted the chain free, and the small enameled heart pendant also strung onto it clinked against the plain apartment key. 

"I want to spend as much time as I possibly can on making this right between us," Will said quietly. "Because I wasted a year of my life without you Emma. I don't want to waste any more time."

"Will..."

"Please Emma, move in with me."

"Will... what? Why?"

"Because I want more than just mid-day to be my favorite time of the day," he answered playfully.

"Will, that's not..." she started to say before her eyes went wide with emotion. "Wait, is this... is this about s..e..x...? Because I know we're... and I want to be close to you... but... but I don't think I'm ready for... for...” 

Will stepped forward and brushed back her hair gently. 

“I know,” he said softly. “It's okay. I look forward to the day you're ready to share that part of yourself with me, but really Emma, I just want to be with you.” 

He cradled her face in his hands.

“I promise you, it's not about that. It's because I want you, Emma,” he assured her with quiet sincerity. “I want you all the time; every day, and every night. I want your face to be the first thing I see every morning and I want to kiss your lips goodnight every night, knowing that you're going to be in the bed right there beside me. I want to see your toothbrush next mine on the sink, and your blouses next to my vests in the closet. I want to make you breakfast in the mornings and have dinner in the candlelight with you. 

It's because I know now that there's only this moment... there's only this..."

He leaned forward and gave her a light, sweet kiss.

"And I don't ever want to let another minute pass without knowing that my house is our home... like a promise of things to come."

Still, Emma hesitated.

“Will, I'm getting better; so much better. I am. But what about... what about my...” She said haltingly before taking a deep breath as if she were going to dive into deep water. “What about my OCD? Some days are great, but some days are still... not so great. There are still toothbrushes, and gloves... and..." she trailed off as if she had run out of the breath necessary for speech. 

“We'll get through it together, I promise,” he assured her confidently. "Besides, you forgot to say love. Because there's that too, right?"

Emma stepped forward and threw her arms around him.

"Oh so much," she breathed against the damp, warm skin of his neck. "So much..."

"Then we'll figure everything else out together, okay?"

Emma took a small step back and brushed her lips against his quickly before dashing out into the rainy courtyard.

"Wait! Emma, is that a yes?" Will called, following her. He caught up to her just as she pushed the key home into his front door lock. She turned back to him, waiting, heedless of the rain thoroughly soaking her to the skin. She smiled and reached her hand back just enough to turn the key.

"Take me home, Will."

"With pleasure..."

He pressed her against the door, kissing her breathless. 

"I don't think I've ever been so grateful for rain in my life," Will gasped between kisses and Emma's laughter, even as he reached around her body to turn the doorknob. He pulled the key and chain free and they stumbled into their apartment, still kissing. He pushed the door closed after them.

"Welcome home... I've missed you..." 

 

 


End file.
